Letterboxd

     Hello! This is going to be a shorter blog post, since it's not really about any one movie in particular, but rather how I engage with all movies in general. I was recently approached by one of my cousins from Argentina, Agustin, about whether I have a Letterboxd account. For those unfamiliar with Letterboxd, it's a website that serves as a sort of social media for movie reviews, where you can log, rate, and review movies that you've seen recently, and then go through your friends' profiles to see what they've seen and rated as well. While I know quite a few people who use it regularly (this to be expected with so many friends in a prestigious film school), I never really enjoyed using Letterboxd for myself, only having rated a handful of movies that I've watched. But why don't I use it more often?

    This question was posed to me by Agustin, and while I've been asked the same before, this was the first time I paused to give it some thought and time. If I like watching movies, and I enjoy writing, why wouldn't I like a social media that combines the two? Initially, I didn't think I had an answer with any more depth than "I'm too lazy to log every movie I watch." And while there is a degree of truth to this reasoning, I couldn't shake the idea that my aversion to the site had deeper roots than I was aware of.

    Come to think about it, it's not that I'm "too lazy" to write about movies. If that was the case, then I probably wouldn't have half the amount of blog posts I've written on this site! However, my blog posts on movies feel like a completely different style of movie review than my Letterboxd posts have been, and I feel like that's mostly the fault of how the website functions. Like Twitter, most social media apps operate on the idea that the user is flooded with endless, short pieces of media, rather than having to go through just a few, long pieces with more content. Letterboxd is the same, offering plenty of brief reviews instead of lengthier critiques and essays. And this makes sense, because I doubt that a social media site would have much of a userbase if all it had was essay after essay on random movies. Realistically, most people don't have the time nor the care to read longer reviews, so they will seek out shorter pieces so they can continue doing whatever else they should be doing.

    But do I want to engage with media this way? If I were to indulge my ego a little bit, I would say that as a writer, I have a compulsion to write out my thoughts in a much more explicit, detailed prose instead of other people who don't enjoy writing as much, who are content with posting quick blurbs of information. While I'm perfectly capable of writing in smaller doses, I think I'd prefer writing about every thought that crossed my mind when watching a movie if I feel passionately enough about it that I would sit down to write about it. Whether this writing would be worth anything would be up to the discretion of the reader, but if I am choosing to write for my personal enjoyment, then I would value capturing as many thoughts and feelings as possible instead of a simple "I liked / disliked this movie for {this reason}." 

    Having said all of that, however, I still think that there is some value in posting on Letterboxd. Even if I prefer writing way more than would be acceptable on that site, there's nothing stopping me from continuing to write long essays and blog posts about movies I watch and ALSO posting smaller quips on social media. Luckily for me, this isn't a binary choice, and when I really think about it, I should make an effort to try to engage more with social media, especially when it's connected to my potential career. So for what it's worth, moving forward I will continue to write longer posts on this site, but I'll also be trying to post smaller quick reviews on Letterboxd, and maybe including links to my full thoughts on this site within my posts!

    Thanks Agustin for the inspiration!